Patent GB-788093-A (GB)
Title: Improvements in or relating to self-service vending machines
IPC: G07F11/18
Filed: 1956-05-17
Abstract: 788,093. Coin-freed vending apparatus. SEITZ, H., SEITZ, E., LIEGEL-, LIEBLER, H., SEITZ, R., LIEGEL-, LIEBLER, E., SEITZ, G., HARTMANN, C., and SEITZ, I. May 17, 1956 [July 21, 1955; Sept. 26, 1955], No. 15354/56. Class 27 A coin-freed vending machine has a pair of article shoots 1, 2 arranged one behind the other above a drawer having a front article-receiving recess 8 and a rear support plate 9 and a pivoted finger 10 is arranged on the plate 9 for moving articles from the rear shoot to the front shoot. In the form shown in Fig. 1, articles are first dispensed from the rear shoot and the stack in the front shoot is supported by a bellcrank lever 4 which is pivoted at the foot of the shoot partition 3 and has a vertical arm or arms bearing on the rear stack. A weight 5, heavier than the front stack of articles, bears on top of the rear stack and has one or more recesses 6 so that when the stack is exhausted the vertical arm or arms of the support lever can swing to a horizontal position and allow the front stack of articles to fall ready for successive delivery. The finger 10, which is loaded by means such as a spring 12, passes between article-supporting ledges 15 at the foot of the rear shoot and the weight 5 has a recess 7 to allow passage of the finger when the weight falls to the ledges 15. In a form in which articles are first dispensed from the front shoot, the weight 5 is placed in the front shoot, the recess for the support lever opens from the bottom of the weight and pins 18 as shown in Fig. 10 on the weight engage the ends of slots in the shoot wall to retain the weight at a level allowing articles from the rear shoot to pass under it. Fig. 10 shows a version in which the article-supporting lever is omitted and the finger 10 is held in inoperative position by a lever 22 until the weight in the front shoot directly or through a pin 21 tilts the lever 22 to release the finger. In Fig. 13, the stack in one shoot is supported by flaps 24 carried by shafts 25 which extend beyond the other shoot and have cranked ends 27 supported in ledges in levers 26. When the loading weight in the shoot first to be emptier engages the levers, either directly or through pins, the flaps are released to fallto a vertical position. In the form shown in Fig. 17, the article support lever 23 is locked to support the front stack by a pin 21 in a vertical part of a slot 24 in the lever but, when the weight 5 falls to the support ledges 15, the finger can move along a recess 7 in the weight until it engages a wall 16 and the weight is then moved forward so that its bevelled end 17 raises the pin 21 and releases the support lever. A depression 18 retains the released pin 21 and a stop 19 restricts forward movement of the weight. The lever 23 may be of the form of a U lying on its side and a pin 21 mounted on a lever may engage a lower short arm of the U to lock the lever until the weight moves forward to swing the lever and pin beyond the short arm. Three or more shoots may be arranged one behind the other and the drawer may have a stepped shape with a pivoted finger at the rear of each step. The Specification also describes prior vending machines with pairs of shoots in which the shoots are pivoted at their upper ends for alternate delivery, in which auxiliary floors in the delivery drawer are alternately raised and lowered below a pair of side-by-side shoots, in which the stack of articles in one of a pair of side-byside shoots is supported by a bell-crank lever until the articles in the first shoot are exhausted and in which a finger on the drawer yields rearwardly under articles in a rear shoot until the front shoot is empty.